Toyoda/Toyota

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:01 AM -0800 2/25/10, Lisa Galvin wrote:
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>It (da) only requires more strokes in the katakana and hiragana
>versions, not in the kanji (Chinese character).
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>Lisa
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That BBC write-up to which Ben provided the link largelyly pooh-poohs
all the explanations regarding strokes in favor of other reasons.

LH

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>>  Date: Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:54:18 -0500
>>  From: stevekl at GMAIL.COM
>>  Subject: Re: Toyoda/Toyota
>>  To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>  Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster: "Steve Kl." <stevekl at GMAIL.COM>
>>  Subject: Re: Toyoda/Toyota
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  In addition to requiring fewer strokes, according to Katie Couric, the 'ta'
>>  version requires eight strokes, and eight is considered a lucky number. (The
>>  'da' version apparently requires ten strokes.)
>>
>>  - Steve
>>
>>  On Thu, Feb 25, 2010 at 12:48 PM, Salikoko Mufwene
>>  <s-mufwene at uchicago.edu>wrote:
>>
>>  > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>>  > Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  > Poster: Salikoko Mufwene <s-mufwene at UCHICAGO.EDU>
>>  > Organization: University of Chicago
>>  > Subject: Re: Toyoda/Toyota
>>  >
>>  >
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>  >
>>  > victor steinbok wrote:
>>  > > Not sure if any of it is true, but this is circulating on "the series of
>>  > tubes":
>>  > >
>>  > > Why Toyota and not Toyoda?
>>  > >
>>  > > ==
>>  > > According to a much-quoted article in Wikipedia, the spelling change
>>  > > was made to make it easier to pronounce, symbolize a separation from
>>  > > the founder's home life, and, possibly most importantly, because
>>  > > Toyota, which takes eight strokes to write in Japanese, is considered
>>  > > to be luckier than Toyoda.
>>  > > ==
>>  > >
>>  > Yes, your version is more accurate than mine. It had to do with "luck"
>>  > rather than "connotations."
>>  >
>>  > Sali.
>>  >
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